Toys and other devices that discharge disc-like objects have been designed in the past with various housing and internal elements. These devices are often difficult to use and/or are dangerous for children, and/or are too expensive, complicated or insufficiently robust.
Launching devices, toy and otherwise, are well known and are disclosed in several existing patents. By way of example, Napier patented a launching device in 1920 and again in 1921, U.S. Pat. No. 1,353,663 for a “Target Throwing Device” and U.S. Pat. No. 1,374,757 for a “Catapult.” These patents purport to disclose a launching device for clay pigeon targets and include a slanted platform with a guide way in the platform, a guide rail to one side of the platform and a roller for accelerating the clay pigeon. Friction material is added to the guide rail and to the roller to “give it the (clay pigeon) the desired action as it leaves said platform.” U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,854 for a “Spring Type Bottle Cap Pistol” issued in early 1977 to Lehman, purports to disclose a pistol to propel and spin a bottle cap by positioning a spring connected to a plunger in a lower longitudinally directed chamber, attaching a hammer to the plunger, the hammer extending through a slot in a upper longitudinally directed chamber where the bottle cap is loaded. The hammer is located off-center from the bottle cap so that when a trigger is rotated, the plunger is released to accelerate the hammer and bottle cap along the upper chamber to discharge the bottle cap while also inducing a spin in the cap. A restraining pin extends through a slot to abut an interior surface wall of the bottle cap to prevent the bottle cap from moving along the upper chamber until the trigger is depressed at which time the pin moves out of the way. Loading of a bottle cap is from above the pistol through a sliding cover. Another patent issued to Lehman later in 1977, U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,089 for a “Flying Saucer Launching Pistol” purports to disclose a pistol very similar to that disclosed in his earlier patent but with a pair of ramps in the firing chamber tapered so as to center different diameter discs when each is loaded. U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,215 for a “Disk Toy And Launcher” issued in 1979 to Kettlestrings, purports to disclose a mechanical launcher for a toy disk that has a recess for engaging and bending a leaf spring when loaded. After bending the spring, the disk is received by tabs of catch members in the launcher. When a plunger dislodges the tabs, the spring propels the disk away from the launcher.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,202 for a “Disc Launcher” issued in 1981 to Jaworski and Breslow, purports to disclose a mechanical launcher having a circular casing, a disc magazine for feeding discs by gravity, an actuating arm movable between a loading position and a firing position, a spring and a rubber band biased trigger. In the loading position the actuating arm receives a soft round disc in front of a curved edge portion. A user rotates the actuating arm and the edge portion to a firing position, the actuating arm preventing any more discs falling from the magazine, while moving a free arm of the spring loads the spring. All the while a launching slot is blocked. The user then returns the actuating arm to the loading position. When the user pulls the trigger, the free arm of the loaded spring contacts the outer peripheral portion of the disc to eccentrically propel the disc through the launching slot and away from the launcher.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,320 for a “Toy Vehicle With Disc Launching Apparatus And Disks” issued in 1987 to Rich et al, and purports to disclose a toy vehicle carrying an inclined track for storing multiple disks and a spring biased catapult lever. When a user moves the catapult lever to load the spring and then releases the catapult lever, a peripheral edge of the lever engages a spindle of a disk causing the disk to spin and eject from the vehicle. The disk moves away from the vehicle along the surface on which the vehicle is positioned. (It is noted that the spellings used for “disc” and “disk” are adopted from spellings used by the referenced patents, and in the case of U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,320 both spellings are used.) U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,471,967 and 5,611,322 issue to Matsuzaki in 1995 and 1997, respectively, for a “Disc Discharging Toy” purports to disclose motor operated spinning wheels for imparting energy to a discharging disc. U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,564 for a “Disc Discharge Device” issued in 1999 to Kotowski, purports to disclose a disc-discharging toy having a magazine for stacking resilient discs and a motor driven roller mounted in a position such that the roller's axis of rotation is perpendicular to the axis of rotation of a discharging disc. When the motor is activated and a disc is moves forward to the spinning roller, a bumper places the disc in position to make correct contact between the disc and the roller prior to the disc being discharged. In 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,457 for a “Knockdown Style Safety Disk-Shooting Toy” issued to Wu, purports to be another example of a motor driven disk-discharging toy, although this device includes light and sound effects.
In 2004, U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,356 for a “Flying-Object Launching Toy Gun” issued to Lee, and purports to disclose a toy gun for launching a propeller-like device from the gun using springs to provide launch energy and a rack and pinion to cause the propeller-like device to spin as it is launched. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,673,624 issued in 2010 for a “Disk Shooting Toy” issued in 2010 to Rosella Jr., purports to disclose a toy for shooting disks using a spring plunger and a spin member, the distal end of a curved resilient arm.
These patents and devices are of some interest, however, they do not disclose or illustrate a marketable toy item of superior play value.